DeVos at a Loss

 Posted by at 10:17 am  Politics
Jan 192017
 

In case you are not aware of this, Betsy DeVos Republican Supply-side pseudo-Christian billionaire, is the Theocon Fascist that Putin’s Perverted Puppet has appointed to destroy public education in the US.  When she showed up for her hearings, she was quite ill prepared.

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Betsy DeVos’ confirmation hearing to become President-elect Donald Trump’s education secretary was originally scheduled for last Wednesday but ultimately postponed until late Tuesday afternoon. With an extra week to get ready, Senate Democrats came prepared—and DeVos, oddly enough, did not.

While Republicans on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions lauded the billionaire philanthropist—and prominent GOP donor—for her commitment to expanding charter schools and voucher programs, committee Democrats barraged DeVos with specific, pointed questions about her attempts to privatize public education, even pleading with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the HELP chairman, for the opportunity to ask more questions as the three-and-a-half-hour hearing boiled over.

DeVos reaffirmed her support for an education system beyond a "one size fits all" approach that opened up choices—"whether magnet, virtual, charter, home, religious, or any combination thereof." But when pushed beyond her talking points, she was stiff and often thrown off her game:

"If you were not a multibillionaire…"

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) didn’t shy away from challenging DeVos on her family’s large contributions to the Republican Party. "Do you think that if you were not a multibillionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions, that you would be sitting here today?" Sanders followed up by grilling DeVos on free college education and tax cuts on the richest Americans…

From <Mother Jones>

To summarize, she ducked every one of Bernie’s questions in a way that made it clear that more welfare for billionaires should take precedence over any benefits for America’s students.

In addition to Bernie, the article includes five more Senators who grilled DeVos, and it has a video for each.  I recommend that you click through for the rest of this fine piece.  Then…

RESIST!!

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  11 Responses to “DeVos at a Loss”

  1. DeVos: DeVos Schools in Michigan Failed

    Be sure to watch the videos in TC's PP MotherJones links above. 

    Betsy DeVos wants to use America's schools to build "God's kingdom." She's about to get her chance.

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/betsy-devos-christian-schools-vouchers-charter-education-secretary

    DeVos is unfit to be Education Secretary, period! Here is a link via google to read any of these article links to know about schools in Michigan and their failures. DeVos has no experience in public education. 

    http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=DeVos+schools+in+Michigan+failed&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

    Jeremy Scahill: Did Education Nominee Betsy DeVos Lie to Senate About Ties to Anti-LGBT Foundation? VIDEO & TEXT:

    https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/18/jeremy_scahill_did_education_nominee_betsy?utm_source=Democracy+Now%21&utm_campaign=a666914027-Daily_Digest&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fa2346a853-a666914027-191305865
    .

  2. "We DO expect something in return."  Well, no – um – kidding. 

    I got into a conversation on this at Sojourners (https://sojo.net/articles/will-betsy-devos-uphold-these-faith-rooted-principles-public-education), where a troll said "Betsy Devos threatens to give Black America the same school choice that more affluent white Americans have enjoyed."  I responded that access (choice) is not necessarily the same as availabiliy, that one might as well talk about giving the homeless that same choice of investment decisions as the Koch brothers (or, as Bernie put it, " ’Has access to’ does not mean they are guaranteed …. I have ‘access to’ buying a ten million dollar home, I don’t have the money to do that.")  Someone else who has it together replied to me:

    Thank you, you've put your finger on the crucial point in vouchers.

    If vouchers pay for, say, 80% of the cost of an acceptable education, then poor people (who have so little discretionary income) still won't be able to afford it. The result — white flight, de facto segregation, separate and un-equal, and sub-standard public-funded education opportunities for poor people.

    Schools for poor people are impoverished in two ways: 1) white/rich flight takes money, on average, out of the public system, and 2) political leverage to advocate for adequate funding also vanishes with the white flight. There would be little hope that enough people will care to, e.g., pass a bond referendum when needed.

    Unless vouchers pay for 100% of an adequate education (and can be politically guaranteed to continue fully funded for the indefinite future), they are likely to increase the racial and economic divide in the U.S.

    The devil is in the details.

    Incidentally, Mrs. DeVos's brother is Erik Prince.  THAT Erik Prince.  https://www.democracynow.org/2017/1/18/scahill_blackwater_founder_erik_prince_the

  3. When Al Franken (D-Minn) got a hold of Ms. DeVos, it got quite comical. When she was asked about guns in schools by the gentleman from Newtown, CT, she said that there should be guns in the schools to "protect from grizzlies", I thought I would just a gut! Finding out later that the school has bear spray and fences to keep them protected from grizzlies and "they seem to work quite well!" She was and is just a rich little princess looking for a cushy job so she can add it to the list after her name for prestige! She knows NOTHING about public schools and less about how to run the Dept. of Education! She needs to step aside and let a more knowledgeable person come to the front of the class!

  4. But if she gets confirmed, we'll never have to be worried about Grizzly bear attacks in grade school, because our Kindergarten teachers will be packing heat!

    *sigh*

  5. She's brings nothing to the table. No experience, nor protection from grizzly bears. She didn't know what growth and proficiency means in the educational setting, re: students.
    The teachers are I know, are very concerned about this woman being nomintated as SoE. I'm am too!
    *Pam, you have a bruised head, and I lost my voice from yelling at her during her hearing.
    https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-we-learned-and-didnt-about-betsy-devos-at-her-confirmation-hearing/

  6. There should be few surprises with any of them. Some of the very worst are in complete charge. Any goes.

  7. Good to see Betsy DeVos grilled at her confirmation hearing. But is there really a chance she will not be appointed? Or any of Drumpf's atrocious candidates?

    Get every one ready to contain the damage these "secretaries" are about to do to a minimum in the next four years and

    RESIST!

  8. The twit would even like to include teaching Creationist history as an "alternative" to evolution!  Trump seems to have plumbed the depths of the deepest cess pool, to find his cabinet nominations…all of them!

    RESIST!

  9. DeVos was stunning in her stupidity, her preparedness, and her suitability for the Education Secretary.  Loved Tim Kaine's shot and I think he hit a bullseye.  Al Franken was spot on as was Bernie.  She should not be confirmed but will be because all of Drumpfenfarten's picks are stacked.

  10. Thanks all.  Hugs!!

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